Intel silently made its newest addition to the Core i7 desktop processor family official: the Core i7 960. This socket LGA-1366 processor is designed to work on motherboards with the Intel X58 Express chipset. After Intel's gradual replacement of the Core i7 965 Extreme Edition with the Core i7 975 Extreme Edition, there remained a scope for a non-XE Core i7 model with the same clock-speed as the i7 965 XE, albeit with an upwards locked bus frequency multiplier.

The Core i7 960 comes clocked at 3.20 GHz (24.0 x 133 MHz), with a maximum Turbo Boost speed of 3.43 GHz. It has four processing cores, and with the HyperThreading Technology, provides the operating system with eight logical CPUs. It comes with a QuickPath Interconnect speed of 4.8 GT/s, and supports up to 24 GB of memory with its triple-channel (192-bit wide) DDR3 memory interface. Each processing core has a dedicated L2 cache of 256 KB, while an 8 MB L3 cache is shared between all four cores. It is built on the 45 nm HKMG process, with a TDP of 130W.

The Core i7 960 is touted to displace the Core i7 950 from its existing price-point of around US $562 (in 1000 unit tray quantities). As evidence of that, popular American retailer Newegg.com has listed the OEM part (chip-only) at $589.99, a mere $10 higher than the retail box of the Core i7 950 listed on the same store.

Only $60 more than an i7 870. Kind of makes me wonder why anyone would buy the 870. The platform costs aren't THAT different. If you're spending £400+ on a processor you've probably got enough £$£$ to pay for the small increase in platform cost.

This getting very sad what they are doing right now with the lga 1366 platform. I mean come on there making every processor around this socket way to dam expensive its pathetic to.....
If you wanted to go lga 1366 then grab at least 500 dollars because its so expensive to grab the platform for some people. If 1366 Is going to be a high end platform HOW ABOUT YOU PUT SATA 3 AND USB 3.0 on those motherboards first, im noticing that lga 1156 is going to have these techs before lga 1366 and yet its a p55 not a x58 ........ Im confused, if you want crazy system with tripple channel mem get a core i7 x58 setup, but if you want a i7 still for even cheaper but with dual channel mem get a p55 setup FOR ABOUT HALF THE COST. Rediculas crap im seeing here....

SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 won't be until the x6# series of chipsets. Only LGA-1366 will see a hexa-core processor (maybe LGA-1567 will). LGA-1366 is also two-way with an appropriate motherboard (QPI, anyone?).

MicroCenter had the i7 960 processor for $200, which is a deal because I have been watching this processor on the market for a long time. Just built a monster box that I have been waiting to build for a long, long time.

The 960 is identical to the 965 except for the fact that it is an extreme chip and that the System Bus for the i7 960 is 4.8 GT/s and the i7 965 is 6.4 GT/s. Just wondering if that will make a big difference. Mostly using this RIG as a server for my business and I only get to make this big purchase once every 3 years. Not planning on changing anything. The new rig works great. Just wondering what the GT/s difference is?